This is the amazing place where we had the Dallas Photo Walk! Man, I was so tired that morning; I almost didn’t make it. We had just driven in from New Orleans where we partied a little too hard… then slept on the bus all the way to Dallas. We woke up, and there was a Rolls Royce Ghost outside the bus that was sent by the Ritz-Carlton to ferry us over to their location. The GM was there and everything. We stumbled out of bed and got dressed, but I tell ya what – the whole thing was VERY confusing, but awesome!
Here’s one of the last cruises I took before the whole pandemic thang. That’s a view of Miami from the water just as we left. It was kind of funny… this cruise was with the Summit people, which are a lot like the TED people. In other words, lots of politically active and passionate people mostly on the left. Anyway, on the night we left, Trump got elected… so then everyone on the boat was just so upset and crying for days and days… it was a wild scene!
I’ve been using Luminar for a while now, along with Aurora HDR, as my main software for processing images. It’s just so powerful and feature packed which makes editing images even more fun than normal. Recently I got hold of the new Luminar AI which replaces Luminar 4 and it’s great. There is a bunch of AI based stuff on the front end which helps you select templates (think presets) which is great for beginners or to inspire some ideas for processing. For those of us who want to get hands on that is still an option and there are a bunch of new sliders to play around with. Check out the vid below where I process a landscape image and if you’re interested in grabbing the software you can do so here. 🙂
Daily Photo – Evening Storm Rolling into Naples
I can see why Florida has a huge appeal to people who are the beachy sorts. I don’t actually think I am the beachy sort… I’m more the mountainy sort. But I’d do that split about 70/30. I certainly don’t hate the beach and I’ve been having a great time exploring all the beaches on the North Island of NZ. Nothing against Florida or anything, but I think I like the beaches here a bit more because they are so remote you hardly see anyone else… makes it easy for a fun skinny dip or two.
Check out the new podcast called “Molecules I’ve Ingested” at https://podcasts.treyratcliff.com/ ! We’ve actually recorded the first two episodes already… I got this idea from my friend Hanna in Scotland because she thought I had hilarious stories about trying different drugs, so I decided to turn it into a full podcast. Each episode is a different molecule. I teamed up with my friend and neighbor across the street, Harriett McDonald (who is also a voice actress) to be the storytellee. Is that a word? Not sure… either way, she’s awesome because she is straight as an arrow and more conservative than Pat Buchanan, so she asks all the obvious questions and rightly calls me out for being a moron. Anyway, each episode is focused on a different molecule and, beyond the wild stories, they are quite educational! So, yeah, Episode 1 is called Amazonian Giant Monkey Frog Poison aka The Cambo Ceremony and Episode 2 is Acid at Burning Man and the Asian Stalker – Enjoy and tell your friends! 🙂 I’m working on Episode 3 now… I think it’s gonna be called “Full Death Experience – Imbibing the Crystalized Poison of the Sonoran Desert Toad in the form of 5MEO-DMT.” Yeah, it’s kind of a long title, but that’s just what the master wordsmith ordered.
Daily Photo – Washington D.C. in the Snow
I went to DC last year to meet with my friends at the Ritz-Carlton (that’s where they are based). I got there a day early in the middle of a dramatic blizzard. I spent a few hours walking around and just taking photos with my Pixel phone… here is one of my favorites!
Passport Sunday Burning Man Story About Acid and the Asian Stalker?
If you’re one of our awesome Passport Member then you’ll get to hear the new (still secret) podcast where I tell stories about different molecules I’ve ingested. Today’s story will take you on quite a wild ride… I’ve survived and lived to tell the tale!
Episode 2 of “Molecules I’ve Ingested”
Okay, well, jump on board for the new episode… I’ll probably release this to the wider world starting next week or so, but I thought you might want to have an early listen. I may add a few more comments from Hugh Howey and others, but this is a fun early version for you. 🙂
That’s us! If you’re a Passport Member then you’ll get to hear the whole crazy story about this night that involved quite a bit of acid and quite a bit of hilarity. From left to right that’s me, Jonatas, Rene, and Hugh Howey. You’ll hear a little bit from them in the podcast episode too. Enjoy!
In today’s photo, I realized those two heads sticking out are the same heads that are on the girls in this photo below. I mean, I guess I realized that at the time, but now I just put it together again!
Daily Photo – Photos in the White Sands
We made a detour on the road trip across the USA to take photos at sunset here at White Sands National Park. That’s my friend Jonatas there carrying a tripod while we had an amazing time. We had already been to Burning Man a few times, so it was nice to experience a whole new kind of desert with him!
It seems kind of lazy just to stroll up and down the beach with my camera at sunset to get the easy shot, but I’m not above being lazy! This was a 3.2-second exposure to smooth out the water just a little bit. Some people will come out here and use an ND filter to do like a 5-minute exposure, which can be quite beautiful too. But I don’t do that because of the aforementioned laziness.
This is a great show to watch on Netflix… I’ve known about this stuff for a long time and wrote a lot about it in my book – and I’m glad this is going more mainstream now. Here’s the trailer for ya:
Daily Photo – Posing for Instagram in a snowstorm
I love watching people freeze off their fingers just to get the perfect shot for Instagram. It’s such a weird thing in a way… I guess it’s not the end of the world. At least she’s not in a bikini. Speaking of Instagram, be sure to check out the trailer above.
Here is a new documentary I’m really enjoying… check out the trailer and go watch it at https://becomingnobody.com.
Daily Photo – Los Angeles with Brandin Cooks
The last time I went to LA, I had a fun day with Brandin Cooks to head out to downtown to take some cool photos in some favorite spots. Brandin played for the Rams at the time and he has a super nice car, as you might imagine. We were pretty worried about parking it random spots in downtown LA that we might get attacked or something. I wasn’t worried… I figure I had Brandin to protect me! 🙂
From my somewhat extensive knowledge of comics, I believe that Gotham City is based on a parallel universe version of New York City. In the comics and movies, Batman always has a bit of a blue tone, so sometimes I like to shoot New York using the tungsten or incandescent settings to get the same sort of look.
